Lord Jones of Birmingham: Ofgem publishes annual reports listing suppliers with an obligation under the renewables obligation and whether they presented ROCs or paid the buyout price. A summary can be found below. The reports can be found on the Ofgem website at www.ofgem.gov.uk/Pages/MoreInformation.aspx?docid=73&refer=Sustainability/Environmnt/RenewablObl
	
		
			 England and Wales 
			 Year No. Suppliers with Obligation No. Suppliers presenting ROCs No. Suppliers paying Buyout price % Compliance 
			 02-03 38 23 20 59 
			 03-04 40 22 27 56 
			 04-05 38 23 28 70 
			 05-06 35 23 26 76 
		
	
	
		
			 Scotland 
			 Year No. Suppliers with Obligation No. Suppliers presenting ROCs No. Suppliers paying Buyout Price % Compliance 
			 02-03 28 19 7 55 
			 03-04 29 22 10 56 
			 04-05 24 18 9 61 
			 05-06 25 16 17 86 
		
	
	
		
			 Northern Ireland 
			 Year No. Suppliers with Obligation No. Suppliers presenting ROCs No. Suppliers paying Buyout price % Compliance 
			 02-03 - - - - 
			 03-04 - - - - 
			 04-05 - - - - 
			 05-06 7 4 5 20

Lord Darzi of Denham: Providers must accept referrals directly from referring clinicians in primary and secondary care. However, referral methods are determined by local health service bodies and may include a variety of referral processes. The care and resource utilisation guidance published by the department in December 2006 provides advice and techniques on how health service bodies should manage referrals to ensure that patients are given the best possible care. The techniques are owned and agreed by clinicians, working in partnership across primary and secondary care, to deliver integrated, well-designed services. The guidance is available in the Library and at the department's website at www.dh.gov.uk/PublicationsAndStatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidanceArticle/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=4141316&chk=iJxRrx.

Lord Darzi of Denham: We understand that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has procedures in place for ensuring that the authors of work undertaken for NICE declare any potential conflicts of interest, including previous public statements or opinions resulting from their previously published opinions on the clinical and cost effectiveness of relevant technologies. NICE's conflict of interest policy is available at www.nice.org.uk/niceMedia/pdf/CodeofPracticeforDeclaringand DealingwithConflictsofInterest.pdf

Lord West of Spithead: The public service agreements published on 9 October 2007 will come into effect on 1 April 2008. Those which the Home Office leads relate to migration, safer communities, alcohol and drugs, terrorism and the criminal justice system (led jointly with the Attorney-General and the Secretary of State for Justice). Each PSA priority outcome is underpinned by a single delivery agreement shared across all contributing departments and developed in consultation with delivery partners and frontline workers.
	In response to (a), individual impact assessments were not produced for PSAs as each delivery agreement represents a range of co-ordinated activity ranging from existing and new legislation, which follows the normal parliamentary route, through to new or ongoing publicity campaigns to promote specific initiatives such as tackling anti-social behaviour. Impact assessments, previously called regulatory impact assessments, are only required when the Government bring forward specific new proposals. These are intended to assess the full impact of such proposals—for example, the costs and benefits, both monetised and non-monetised, to the public, private and third sectors—and we would expect that any significant effects on the rural community would be identified as part of that process, particularly as this has been given greater prominence in the new impact assessment format recently introduced.
	In response to (b) the new PSA delivery agreements are cross-government and may relate to policies for which other departments are responsible. Previous assessments of policy areas for which the Home Office is responsible are published on the Home Office website at www. homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/publications/regulatory- impact-assessments/
	In response to (c) any new assessments will also be published there or, where we are consulting on new proposals, the assessment will accompany the consultation documents at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/haveyoursay/
	Equality impact assessments were prepared for our new PSAs, as a legal requirement, and are published at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/publications/regulatory-impact-assessments/#assess2007